The Benghazi attack ad Romney nixed and the one Rove aired

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill January 23, 2013 in Washington, DC. Lawmakers...

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The Republican National Committee cut an attack ad weeks before the 2012 election, blaming then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the deadly Benghazi attacks, but the Romney campaign pulled the plug.

The ad, unearthed and aired for the first time by ABC News, splices together Clinton’s famous “3 a.m. phone call” ad from her presidential campaign in 2008 with images of the burning U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

Even Mitt Romney thought it was a bad idea.

But out Friday is a similar ad, paid for by Karl Rove’s super PAC American Crossroads. Rove’s ad slams Clinton, claiming that she and the Obama administration covered up the terrorist motivations of the Benghazi attack.

In September of last year, a group of terrorists attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, killing four Americans. In the initial aftermath of the attacks, the White House and State Department indicated the attacks spurred from violent protests over an inflammatory YouTube video—information that was later proven wrong. House hearings over the attacks on Wednesday have stirred up the controversy again, following former Deputy Chief of Mission in Libya Greg Hicks’ testimony of what happened the night of the attacks.

Clinton, who is not currently in any elected or appointed position, is widely regarded to be a potential 2016 Democratic presidential contender.